Book 3, by Helen Wells
Illustrated by Ralph Crosby Smith,
revision illustrated by Frank Vaughn
Grosset & Dunlap, 1944
Cherry herself stood erect and read earnestly:
"By direction of the President, Cherry Ames is with her consent ordered to active duty with the Army of the United States ..."
--From Cherry Ames, Army Nurse, p. 2
Cherry Ames and all her Spencer classmates join the Army Nurse Corps, undergo strenuous basic training, and are sent to work at a base hospital in Panama, where Cherry runs afoul of army regulations.
Chapter 1: On Her Way
At home in Hilton after graduating and passing the state board exams, Cherry receives her orders to report for duty in the Army Nurse Corps. Her twin brother, Charlie, is home on leave to see her off, and despite the pangs of homesickness she feels, she's eager to go and help soldiers like her brother.
Explore an in-depth account of Cherry Ames's experiences as a nurse during wartime. Click here to read more!
Chapter 2: Lieutenant Ames Reporting
Cherry returns to Spencer, where her unit is forming, and learns that both Dr. Lex Upham and Dr. Joseph Fortune will be attached to the unit, consisting of sixty nurses from her graduating class and several Spencer doctors, and headed by her old nemesis, Dr. Wylie. She meets Captain Paul Endicott, who is doing liaison work with their unit; her friend Vivian Warren seems attracted to the handsome captain.
Chapter 3: Lovey
Cherry and her unit travel to Fort Herold, in New Jersey, for basic training under the guidance of blustery Sergeant Isaiah Deake, "who regarded all women ... as intruders, nuisances, and nitwits" (p. 53). Cherry promptly nicknames him Lovey and masterminds a practical joke on him, but the nurses eventually manage to convince him that they make good soldiers.
Ralph Crosby Smith's cover showing Cherry in a military uniform was quickly replaced after the war, as was his wartime cover for Chief Nurse. The frontispieces for both books were also revised.
Chapter 4: Cherry Meets Bunce
Halfway through her month's training, Cherry is assigned to ward duty with Lex and meets her corpsmen, including young and amiable Bunce Smith, who has a knack for finding trouble. While tensions rise between Lex and Paul Endicott, Vivian begins to date the handsome but shallow captain.
Chapter 5: On Bivouac
Cherry's training winds up with a bivouac, as her Tans and the "enemy" Blues prepare to fight a simulated battle. While marching to their camp, they pass a farmhouse where a little girl begs for help for her four-year-old brother, who's cut his arm badly. When Paul Endicott haughtily refuses permission for Cherry to leave briefly to give first aid, she sneaks back after dark--and then finds that her Tans had broken camp while she was gone, leaving her alone in the woods till Bunce--and Paul Endicott--find her.
Recognize Nurses Aarons, Ackland, and Allen? They are the three classmates in Cherry's Spencer unit whose names come alphabetically before "Ames" when roll is called (p. 125). Other than the Spencer Club members and the mysterious Misses Stevenson and Shore--briefly mentioned in Student Nurse--these are the only named members of Cherry's graduating class of sixty nurses.
Chapter 6: Secret Journey
Cherry says a reluctant goodbye to Bunce, who's in the guardhouse for helping her on bivouac, and a heartfelt good riddance to Paul Endicott, as her unit prepares to be shipped out. After traveling south by train to the Gulf of Mexico, they wait several days for a ship to bring them to their next destination. Cherry happily discovers that Bunce is also on the ship.
Chapter 7: Señorita Cherry
Arriving in Panama, Cherry and the nurses meet their new chief nurse, Captain Johnny Mae Cowan. To Cherry's surprise and dismay, Paul Endicott is still attached to her unit, and, even more distressing, Vivian seems to be falling in love with him. Cherry and Lex walk in on an argument between Dr. Joe and Dr. Wylie over Dr. Joe's desire to continue his malaria research. On ward duty with Lex, Bunce, and Panamanian nurse Rita Martinez, Cherry tries to referee continued conflicts between Lex and Endicott, and to shield Bunce from further trouble.
In Panama, Rita Martinez tries to give Cherry Spanish lessons; perhaps the lessons worked, because in Ski Nurse Mystery, Cherry can speak Spanish.
Chapter 8: A Ghost Returns
Cherry prepares to spend a welcome day off shopping and exploring a reputedly haunted house, where she is confronted by a strange apparition who demands that she leave--and then sneezes, breaking the mood and leading Cherry to discover that the "ghost" is prankster Bunce. But then the two find that the haunted house is the waystation for an ailing Indian, whom Cherry believes has a severe form of malaria. Cherry bypasses regulations so that the Indian can be treated with Dr. Joe's experimental serum--running afoul of Paul Endicott and causing Dr. Wylie to demote her to probation for her infractions.
Chapter 9: Emergency!
Cherry is dismayed and worried by her punishment, but an emergency cuts through her misery--casualties stream into the hospital when an enemy submarine torpedoes a troop ship. Cherry and the other nurses, doctors, and corpsmen work frantically around the clock, and the emergency "tested Cherry's idealism and her worthiness to be an Army nurse to the utmost" (p. 193). Cherry learns that Paul Endicott is trying to have her discharged, and Vivian breaks up with Paul out of loyalty to Cherry. Lex and Cherry find the malaria-stricken Indian's son through a ring and snapshot in his possession, and the son gives Cherry the ring in gratitude on Christmas Eve, which is also Cherry's birthday. Cherry receives another ring--from Lex, along with a proposal of marriage.
All about World War II nurses in girls' series books, from Susan Merton to Nancy Naylor to Ann Bartlett. Click here to read more!
Chapter 10: Special Mission
Before Cherry can answer Lex's proposal, she is summoned by Dr. Wylie, who surprises her by sending her to the Pacific to deliver Dr. Joe's malaria serum to fellow researchers. Dr. Wylie promotes Bunce to a corporalcy and announces plans to send him to Medical Technicians' School. Cherry learns that "an important promotion and a new post" (p. 208) await her in the Pacific, where her fellow nurses will be joining her soon. Cherry gives Bunce the Indian's ring as a memento and boards a plane, buoyed by feelings of happiness, self-confidence, and pride in meeting the challenges of army nursing.
Cherry Ames, Army Nurse
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